The Office of American Spaces under the U.S. Department of State has recently released its annual report. With over 700 spaces across 169 countries, American Spaces "serve as the primary places of ongoing people-to-people connections between the United States and foreign audiences that are essential to advancing U.S. foreign policy objectives." Hosted in embassies, schools, libraries, and other partner institutions, often outside capital cities, these locales aim to further a core tenet of democracy: access to information.

Interviews with defectors reveal that many listen to news from shortwave radios, despite fear of severe punishment, and there is a new $50 portable media device providing a window to the outside world – despite the government’s best efforts to isolate its population.

The Department of State has renewed the Charter for the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. The Commission appraises U.S. Government activities intended to understand, inform, and influence foreign publics. The Advisory Commission may conduct studies, inquiries, and meetings, as it deems necessary and assembles and disseminates information, issue reports and other publications, subject to the approval of the Chairperson, in consultation with the Executive Director.

The Commission Members will hear about U.S. Public Diplomacy and International Broadcasting Efforts in Eastern Europe and welcome Mark Toner, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs and Macon Phillips, Coordinator of the Bureau of International Information Programs, at the State Department.